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Clean Bill of Lading
A receipt for goods issued by a carrier with an indication that the goods were received in “apparent good order and condition,” without damages or other irregularities. Compare: Foul Bill of Lading.
Clean Draft
A draft to which no documents have been attached.
CoCom. See: Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls.
Collection Papers
All documents (invoices, bills of lading, etc.) submitted to a buyer for the purpose of receiving payment for a shipment.
Collections System
The Collections System, a part of Customs’ Automated Commercial System, controls and accounts for the billions of dollars in payments collected by Customs each year and the millions in refunds processed each year. Daily statements are prepared for the automated brokers who select this service. The Collections System permits electronic payments of the related duties and taxes through the Automated Clearinghouse capability. Automated collections also meet the needs of the importing community through acceptance of electronic funds transfers for deferred tax bills and receipt of electronic payments from lockbox operations for Customs bills and fees.
Commerce Business Daily
CBD is the Commerce Department’s daily newspaper which lists government procurement invitations and contract awards, including foreign business opportunities and foreign government procurements.
Commerce Control List
On August 29, 1991, the Bureau of Export Administration published the new Commerce Control List (CCL) which replaced the former Commodity Control List, effective September 1, 1991. The CCL includes all items – commodities, software, and technical data – subject to BXA export controls and incorporates not only the national security controlled items agreed to by CoCom (the “core” list), but also items controlled for foreign policy and other reasons. The list adopts a totally new method of categorizing commodities and is divided into 10 general categories: (1) materials, (2) materials processing, (3) electronics, (4) computers, (5) telecommunications and cryptography, (6) sensors, (7) avionics and navigation, (8) marine technology, (9) propulsion systems and transportation equipment, and (10) miscellaneous.
Commercial Information Management System
The Commercial Information Management System, CIMS, is a PC-based system used by International Trade Administration staff in export counseling. CIMS is a trade-related application using National Trade Data Bank CD-ROMs to disseminate market research and international economics data to US&FCS domestic offices and overseas posts. The system includes data on American and foreign traders and supports local collection and update of information on business contacts.
Commercial Invoice
The commercial invoice is a bill for the goods from the seller to the buyer. These invoices are often used by governments to determine the true value of goods for the assessment of customs duties and are also used to prepare consular documentation. Governments using the commercial invoice to control imports often specify its form, content, number of copies, language to be used, and other characteristics. An itemized list of goods shipped, usually included among an exporter’s COLLECTION PAPERS.
Commercial Officers
Commercial officers are embassy officials who assist U.S. business through arranging appointments with local business and government officials, providing counsel on local trade regulations, laws, and customs; identifying importers, buyers, agents, distributors, and joint venture partners for U.S. firms; and other business assistance. At large posts, International Trade Administration staff performs these functions. At smaller posts, commercial interests are represented by State’s economic officers. See: Economic Officers; Foreign Service
Commission Agent. See: Purchasing Agent.
Committee on Trade and Development
The CTD was established in 1965 to consider how the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) can aid the economic development of Less Developed Country (LDC) contracting parties (that is, LDC members). See: Commerce Control List
Commodity Credit Corporation
The CCC is a government corporation controlled by the Department of Agriculture that provides financing and stability to the marketing and exporting of agricultural commodities.
Common Carrier
An individual, partnership, or corporation that transports persons or goods for compensation.
Comparison Shopping Service
The comparison shopping service, CSS, is a fee-based International Trade Administration service that provides firms, with key marketing, pricing, and foreign representation information about their specific products. Overseas staff conduct on-site interviews to provide data in nine marketing areas about the product, such as sales potential in the market, comparable products, distribution chani~els, going price, competitive factors and qualified purchasers.
Compliance Strategy
- Informed Compliance- A shared responsibility wherein the Customs Service and Bureau of the Census effectively communicate their requirements to the trade, and the
people and businesses subject to those requirements conduct their regulated activities in conformance with U.S. laws and regulations. - Enforced Compliance- Focuses enforced compliance efforts such as: outbound manifest audits, physical verification of export cargo ladened aboard selected vessels,
compliance examinations of export cargo, detention of export cargo delivered without proper documentation, and “advisory notices”.
Composite Theoretical Performance
Computer hardware export license requirements are evaluated according to the Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP), which replaced the former Processing Data Rate (PDR) parameter. CTP is measured in Million Theoretical Operations Per Second (MTOPS). CTP was developed by the U.S. as a new parameter, and was adopted by CoCom during the Core List negotiations, because PDR was not applicable to certain computer architectures such as vector processors, massively parallel processors, and array processors. CTP is designed to measure all of these architectures as well as signal processing equipment.
COMPRO
COMPRO (Commercial Procedure) is an on-line trade data retrieval system maintained by the International Trade Administration for the government trade community (ITA, UTSR, ITC, and other executive branch agencies). COMPRO includes:
Confirmed Letter of Credit
A letter of credit, issued by a foreign bank, whose validity has been confirmed by an American bank. An exporter whose payment terms are a confirmed letter of credit is assured of payment even if the foreign buyer or the foreign bank defaults
Confirming
Confirming is a financial service in which an independent company confirms an export order in the seller’s country and makes payment for the goods in the currency of that country. Among the items eligible for confirmation are the goods; inland, air, and ocean transportation costs; forwarding fees; custom brokerage fees; and duties. Confirming permits the entire export transaction from plant to end-user to be fully coordinated and paid for over time.
Consignee
The person or firm named in a freight contract to whom goods have been consigned or turned over.
Consignment
Delivery of merchandise from an exporter (the consignor) to an agent (the consignee) under agreement that the agent sells the merchandise for the account of the exporter. The consignor retains title to the goods until sold. The consignee sells the goods for commission and remits the net proceeds to the consignor.
Constructed Value
A means of determining fair or foreign market value when sales of such or similar merchandise do not exist or, for various reasons, cannot be used for comparison purposes. The “constructed value” consists of the cost of materials and fabrication or other processing employed in producing the merchandise, general expenses of not less than 10 percent of material and fabrication costs, and profit of not less than 8 percent of the sum of the production costs and general expenses. To this amount is added the cost of packing for exportation to the United States.